Plo: Shultz Was Bomb Target

March 05, 1988|By Uli Schmetzer, Chicago Tribune.

JERUSALEM — A suspicious Israeli police officer Friday discovered a car bomb set to explode near the Hilton Hotel, where Secretary of State George Shultz was based during his Middle East peace mission.

The Palestine Liberation Organization claimed responsibility for the booby trap and said Shultz was the target.

U.S. officials said the route of Shultz`s motorcade did not pass near the bomb site, some 300 yards from the hotel. Jerusalem police said the bomb was safely dismantled.

Yasser Arafat`s terrorist group, Al-Fatah, in a communique telephoned to the Associated Press office in West Beirut, said it had ``instructed the Limassol martyrs group to park a bomb-laden car in front of the Hilton Hotel in Jerusalem targeting Shultz, the messenger of imperialism, as well as the Zionist entity, in response to the Zionist brutality against our people in the occupied territories and to avenge our people`s martyrs.``

``The driver had an accident and the car crashed into a power pole about 30 minutes before the time set for the bomb to explode,`` the communique said. ``The driver deserted the vehicle and managed to escape.``

Three PLO officials were killed by a car bomb in the Cypriot port of Limassol on Feb. 14. The PLO blamed Israel.

As Palestinian violence continued Friday in the territories, the Israeli army barred journalists from large parts of the West Bank, saying the presence of the media incited Arabs ``to riot for the cameras`` after Friday prayers.

Two more Palestinians died in Friday`s riots, the army reported, bringing the death toll since the unrest broke out Dec. 9 to about 75.

One man was killed in the village of Araba, near Jenin, when a mob of demonstrators attacked troops after a Moslem Sabbath prayer service. The second man died after rioting in the village of Hadr, near Ramallah. Army and hospital officials said eight other stone-throwing Palestinians had been wounded.

Violent protests were also reported near Hebron and in the Gaza Strip.

A Defense Ministry official told the Associated Press ``there is no policy`` to bar journalists from the occupied territories. An Army spokesman said closures were up to the discretion of local commanders and indicated some areas had been closed because noon prayers often end in violent demonstrations.

The discovery of the car bomb near the Jerusalem Hilton followed a spate of sabotage acts, kindling fears that militant Palestinians were carrying their grievances from the West Bank and Gaza Strip into Israel.

On Thursday a similar car bomb exploded outside the central bus station in Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv, but caused no injuries.

Israel Radio reported that a police explosives expert had noticed a car that appeared to have been abandoned Friday near the Hilton, next to a crowded shopping center and the central bus station. He investigated ``and found it was a car bomb,`` the radio quoted a police official as saying.